Jason Linkins and Ben Craw, 1/11/12

It's hard to argue that Mitt Romney's grip on the eventual nomination didn't grow more certain after last night. Unless you asked his competitors!

Chris Mooney, 1/11/12

Author, 'The Republican War on Science' and 'The Republican Brain'

An increasing body of science suggests that we disagree about politics not for intellectual or philosophical reasons, but because we have fundamentally different ways of responding to the basic information presented to us by the world.

Jeff Cohen, 1/11/12

Author and Media Critic

With U.S. media obsessing on the fight here at home among conservatives vying to become president, most of them missed some big news about France, where another conservative, Nicolas Sarkozy, is pushing a Financial Transaction Tax in his country.

Martha Coakley, 1/11/12

Massachusetts Attorney General

In the two years since the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Citizens United v. FEC, those of us who are concerned with the growing influence of special interests and corporations in our political process have seen our worst fears realized.

Rev. Al Sharpton, 1/11/12

President, National Action Network

Romney, the people are not jealous of your mansions or boats. They are simply tired of income inequality, and tired of course of your condescending tone.

JoJo, 1/11/12

Singer

It only takes a short break in concentration for the unthinkable to happen. Fact of the matter is, if you're not paying 100 percent attention to the road, you are gambling with your life and the lives of others.

Michael Ford, 1/11/12

Founding director, Xavier University's Center for the Study of the American Dream

What is the American dream? We began regular study of how people define and perceive the dream three years ago, and have discovered many misunderstandings worth a second look.

Meredith Bagby, 1/11/12

Author, Publisher

So far, Romney has run towards the accusation that he's a job killer saying that layoffs are a part of capitalism. That might be a fine rebuttal in a Republican debate, but it will play as cold and harsh over a video of a crying desperate woman whose job Romney destroyed.

Jedediah Purdy, 1/11/12

Professor, Duke Law School; Author, 'A Tolerable Anarchy'

Maybe climate change will prove too diffuse to get our minds around, and show once and for all that we are unfit to be running a whole planet. Maybe the food movement will turn out to be an elitist fad. Or maybe we can learn something from them.

Jim Moret, 1/11/12

Chief Correspondent, 'Inside Edition'; Attorney; Author, 'The Last Day of My Life'

Let me make this perfectly clear: Khloe is a Kardashian. By all accounts, she was embraced and loved by Robert as his own daughter. He was her dad.

Hayley Krischer, 1/11/12

Award-winning writer and author of Femamom.com -- edgy tales from parenthood

Has the quest for popularity become so anxiety-provoking that parents, who are otherwise involved in their children's lives -- sports, arts, grades, clothing -- would allow their child to pose drunk with a beer can on the Internet?

Bernard-Henri Lévy, 1/11/12

French philosopher; Writer

Governments, opposition heads, declared or undeclared candidates for this election or that, European leaders on the right as well as the left, what is going on in Budapest concerns them all.

Evan Shapiro, 1/11/12

President, IFC

Predicting exactly what's going to happen in the TV business in the next 36 months is like guaranteeing the Miami Heat will win the NBA Championship this year. Sure, you can say it, but be prepared to look like a moron.

Conrad Black, 1/11/12

Historian, publisher, and author

Mr. Romney may be the candidate in the end, but at this point the only real juggernaut is the declared and furtive Democrats preserving him for a ritualistic sacrifice.

Gary Isaac, 1/11/12

Counsel at Mayer Brown LLP; Contributor to 'The Guantanamo Lawyers: Inside A Prison Outside The Law'

Today's an anniversary, but there's no reason to celebrate. Ten years ago the first detainees were brought to Guantanamo Bay. Guantanamo has undermined American values and jeopardized our national security for a decade -- that's long enough.

David Wild, 1/11/12

TV Writer; Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone; Co-Author, 'Diary of a Player"'

Growing up watching Scorsese movies was like attending an open master class on how these two intimately connected art forms can work together at their very best.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, 1/11/12

Rabbi and writer

That's the problem with the knee-jerk religious extremism. It dismisses nuance and seeks to create bogeymen.

Marvin E. Quasniki, 1/11/12

Next President

I'm Marvin E. Quasniki and I will be the next president of the United States. That's right, I said "I will be" and not "I would like to be," because frankly, I wouldn't like it. It's a terrible job. But our country's in the crapper and nobody else seems to be doing anything about it.

Cara Santa Maria, 1/10/12

Science correspondent, Huffington Post; editor, Talk Nerdy to Me

We live on a fragile planet at a fragile time. We cannot discount the possibility of colonizing new worlds. And where better to go than Mars?

Arianna Huffington, 1/10/12

Perhaps the profound disconnect between what people are really concerned about and what the 2012 candidates are talking about is why only 17 percent of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going.

Ethan Rome, 1/11/12

Executive Director, Health Care for America Now

In the debates and campaign ads leading up to the New Hampshire primary a new strain of Republican politics has suddenly surfaced -- a brand of compassionate capitalism that, were it to come from President Obama, Newt Gingrich would describe as socialism.

Michael F. Jacobson, 1/11/12

Executive Director, Center for Science in the Public Interest

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has asked the Food and Drug Administration to get rid of partially hydrogenated oil altogether. In the meantime, avoid products like these.

Suleika Jaouad, 1/10/12

Writer, world traveler, and cancer warrior

"Acute Myeloid Leukemia," my doctor said last May. I was 22 years old. My friends were busy starting their lives, and I was worried that mine might end before it had really begun.

Don Tapscott, 1/11/12

Advisor to government and business leaders; Author, 'Macrowikinomics'

What will happen in 2012? In the spirit of the aphorism "The future is not something to be predicted, it's something to be achieved," let me suggest 20 transformations.